You made the decision years ago that this is a good industry and one that you can grow your business in until you retire or sell it. Overall, you have a good relationship with your employees. Labor can become an issue however, and sometimes it's hard to keep good employees. Maybe a good part of your original "team" has moved on and the quality of service you started with has dropped off slightly. Because of that, your cancel rate is rising. You can see the handwriting on the wall: do something now or lose it. The old formula doesn't seem to be working anymore.

Customer retention has become your most important marketing issue.

You're servicing most of the good parts of town plus a few areas where it doesn't pay to go. You've noticed a lot of competition coming in that's cutting into new sales. They are underbidding you at every turn. Price has become an issue with many prospects.

What to do?

Besides all of the options mentioned in the 750 - 1500 Lawn Care Customer Base Guide, you may want to consider a Fall Direct Mail campaign. This is typically a harder sell than spring, but if done correctly, can be profitable. Most of your competition won't be doing any marketing in the fall.

Timing and local weather conditions are critical for fall mailers. For example: if it's been an unusually wet summer and lawns are still lush and green, no matter how they were treated or who treated them, fall campaigns will be a tough sell because consumers see no reason to switch. On the other hand, if the weather's been hard (drought, disease, insect damage) then you can expect a higher response rate, but you should also expect a corresponding higher cancel rate of your current customers (unless you happened to keep their lawns green throughout the drought).

Get rid of areas that are not profitable. Look at sales by zip code and in those areas where it just isn't profitable, get rid of those clients. Sell them off to your competition.

Because you're market share is wide spread over much of the city, cable television may be a good move. TV advertising reaches a broad spectrum of lawn prospects viewing targeted programs with a higher percentage of viewers having the demographics that closely match your target prospect. Making the decision to do TV advertising is more complex than what can be described here and a lot of variables go into the mix. Please contact us for a closer evaluation of this option.

Web Site - The foundation of your marketing strategy
Business Cards - An inexpensive way to make a big impact (less than $0.07 + postage)
Door Hanging - Neighbors of Current Customers ($0.20 each + labor costs)
Post Cards - For new sales or selling additional services to Current Customers ($0.10 + postage) Focus on specific neighborhoods.
Pre-Pay Letters to Cutomers, Cancels, and Prior Year Rejects - Send a Pre-Pay Letter to customers and customers that cancelled during the previous two years. Offer them a substantial discount of 10-20% if they prepay for the entire full season. Filter your Cancel file to remove movers and bad debt/problem customers. You can also find success mailing the same or a similar offer to leads that did not close from previous years.
Direct Sales - Knock on a few doors while you’re out treating lawns, especially if you work on Saturdays or evenings when people are home. You may come home with three new customers to add to the route you just treated.
Telemarketing - In-house Cancel/Reject File - the gold mine of any business
Telemarketing - To prospects to generate new leads is still a good way to increase density. Closing rate is typically lower than direct mail leads; list selection can be targeted.
Advertising Specialties – Build your brand with useful giveaways - free rain gauges/note pads/pens etc.
Fall Direct Mail Campaign - Targeted list; especially successful with poor weather conditions leading up to 1st week of September
Spring Direct Mail Campaigns - The best time to generate quality leads and long-term customers is in the spring in most markets. Direct Mail, when accurately targeted with a highly selective list, can generate lots of new leads and sales profitably.
Truck Decaling - Truck sales account for between 2 - 4 % of new sales each year and make a lasting impression with quality truck signage. Investment depends on size and quantity of graphics; include web site on truck as well as all literature used by your company.
Television Advertising - Can be targeted by cable system and programming to hit your demographic target prospects.
Invest in continued training by joining your state lawn care association; check out our DVD training program "Anyone Can Sell". Learn how others have become successful and put yourself in a good position for solid future growth.